1.
Chemical warfare
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Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. None of these fall under the conventional weapons which are primarily effective due to their destructive potential. With proper protective equipment, training, and decontamination measures, the effects of chemical weapons can be overcome. Many nations possess vast stockpiles of weaponized agents in preparation for wartime use, the threat and the perceived threat have become strategic tools in planning both measures and counter-measures. Chemical warfare is different from the use of weapons or nuclear weapons because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to any explosive force. Under this Convention, any chemical, regardless of its origin, is considered a chemical weapon unless it is used for purposes that are not prohibited. About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as chemical agents during the 20th century. The entire class known as Lethal Unitary Chemical Agents and Munitions have been scheduled for elimination by the CWC and these may only be produced or used for research, medical, pharmaceutical or protective purposes. Examples include nerve agents, ricin, lewisite and mustard gas, any production over 100 g must be reported to the OPCW and a country can have a stockpile of no more than one tonne of these chemicals. Schedule 2 – Have no large-scale industrial uses, but may have legitimate small-scale uses, schedule 3 – Have legitimate large-scale industrial uses. Both have been used as weapons but phosgene is an important precursor in the manufacture of plastics. The OPCW must be notified of, and may inspect, any plant producing more than 30 tonnes per year, Ancient Greek myths about Hercules poisoning his arrows with the venom of the Hydra monster are the earliest references to toxic weapons in western literature. Homers epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, allude to poisoned arrows used by both sides in the legendary Trojan War, some of the earliest surviving references to toxic warfare appear in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The Laws of Manu, a Hindu treatise on statecraft forbids the use of poison and fire arrows, kautilyas Arthashastra, a statecraft manual of the same era, contains hundreds of recipes for creating poison weapons, toxic smokes, and other chemical weapons. Ancient Greek historians recount that Alexander the Great encountered poison arrows, arsenical smokes were known to the Chinese as far back as c.1000 BC and Sun Tzus Art of War advises the use of fire weapons. Other Chinese writings dating around the same period contain hundreds of recipes for the production of poisonous or irritating smokes for use in war along with accounts of their use. These accounts describe an arsenic-containing soul-hunting fog, and the use of finely divided lime dispersed into the air to suppress a peasant revolt in 178 AD. The earliest recorded use of gas warfare in the West dates back to the fifth century BC, There is archaeological evidence that the Sassanians deployed chemical weapons against the Roman army in the Siege of Dura Europos in the third century AD

2.
Shell (projectile)
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A shell is a payload-carrying projectile that, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used, originally, it was called a bombshell, but shell has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Words cognate with grenade are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages, shells are usually large-calibre projectiles fired by artillery, combat vehicles, and warships. Shells usually have the shape of a cylinder topped by a nose for good aerodynamic performance, possibly with a tapering base. Solid cannonballs did not need a fuse, but hollow munitions filled with something such as gunpowder to fragment the ball, needed a fuse, percussion fuses with a spherical projectile presented a challenge because there was no way of ensuring that the impact mechanism hit the target. Therefore, shells needed a fuse that was ignited before or during firing. The earliest record of shells being used in combat was by the Republic of Venice at Jadra in 1376, shells with fuses were used at the 1421 siege of St Boniface in Corsica. These were two hollowed hemispheres of stone or bronze held together by an iron hoop, as described in their book, these hollow, gunpowder-packed shells were made of cast iron. At least since the 16th Century grenades made of ceramics or glass were in use in Central Europe, a hoard of several hundred ceramic greandes were discovered during building works in front of a bastion of the Bavarian City of Ingolstadt, Germany dated to the 17th Century. Lots of the grenades obtained their orignal blackpowder loads and igniters, most probably the grenades were intentionally dumped the moat of the bastion before the year 1723. Early powder burning fuses had to be loaded fuse down to be ignited by firing or a portfire put down the barrel to light the fuse, other shells were wrapped in bitumen cloth, which would ignite during the firing and in turn ignite a powder fuse. Nevertheless, shells came into use in the 16th Century. By the 18th Century, it was known that the fuse towards the muzzle could be lit by the flash through the windage between the shell and the barrel, the use of exploding shells from field artillery became relatively commonplace from early in the 19th century. Until the mid 19th century, shells remained as simple exploding spheres that used gunpowder and they were usually made of cast iron, but bronze, lead, brass and even glass shell casings were experimented with. The word bomb encompassed them at the time, as heard in the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner, typically, the thickness of the metal body was about a sixth of their diameter and they were about two thirds the weight of solid shot of the same calibre. To ensure that shells were loaded with their fuses towards the muzzle, in 1819, a committee of British artillery officers recognised that they were essential stores and in 1830 Britain standardised sabot thickness as a half inch. The sabot was also intended to reduce jamming during loading, despite the use of exploding shell, the use of smoothbore cannons, firing spherical projectiles of shot, remained the dominant artillery method until the 1850s. By the late 18th century, artillery could use canister shot to defend itself from infantry or cavalry attack and this involved loading a tin or canvas container filled with small iron or lead balls instead of the usual cannonball

3.
United States Army
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The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, the United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775. As a uniformed service, the Army is part of the Department of the Army. As a branch of the forces, the mission of the U. S. The branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of the United States, the United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U. S. Section 3062 of Title 10, U. S, the army was initially led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them. As the Revolutionary War progressed, French aid, resources, a number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills. The army fought numerous pitched battles and in the South in 1780–81 sometimes used the Fabian strategy and hit-and-run tactics, hitting where the British were weakest, to wear down their forces. Washington led victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton, but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776, with a decisive victory at Yorktown, and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British. After the war, though, the Continental Army was quickly given land certificates, State militias became the new nations sole ground army, with the exception of a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Points arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The War of 1812, the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U. S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh, which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U. S. victories in the Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops, were able to capture and burn Washington, which was defended by militia, in 1814. Two weeks after a treaty was signed, Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and Siege of Fort St. Philip, U. S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane, Levant, and Penguin in the final engagements of the war. Per the treaty, both sides, the United States and Great Britain, returned to the status quo. Both navies kept the warships they had seized during the conflict, the armys major campaign against the Indians was fought in Florida against Seminoles. It took long wars to defeat the Seminoles and move them to Oklahoma

4.
Sarin
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Sarin, or GB, is a colorless, odorless liquid, used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent. It is generally considered a weapon of mass destruction, production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed as of April 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance. In June 1994, the UN Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament destroyed the nerve agent sarin under Security Council resolution 687 concerning the disposal of Iraqs weapons of mass destruction, Sarin is an organophosphorus compound with the formula CH3PF. People who absorb a non-lethal dose, but do not receive medical treatment. Sarin is a molecule because it has four chemically distinct substituents attached to the tetrahedral phosphorus center. The SP form is the active enantiomer due to its greater binding affinity to acetylcholinesterase. The P-F bond is broken by nucleophilic agents, such as water. At high pH, sarin decomposes rapidly to nontoxic phosphonic acid derivatives and it is usually manufactured and weaponized as a racemic mixture—an equal mixture of both enantiomeric forms, as this is a simpler process and provides an adequate weapon. A number of pathways can be used to create sarin. The final reaction typically involves attachment of the group to the phosphorus with an alcoholysis with isopropyl alcohol. Two variants of this process are common and this reaction also gives sarin, but hydrochloric acid as a byproduct instead. The Di-Di process was used by the United States for the production of its unitary sarin stockpile, the scheme below describes an example of Di-Di process. The selection of reagents is arbitrary and reaction conditions and product yield depend on the selected reagents, inert atmosphere and anhydrous conditions are used for synthesis of sarin and other organophosphates. As both reactions leave considerable acid in the product, bulk sarin produced without further treatment has a poor shelf life. Various methods have been tried to resolve these problems, triethylamine was added to UK sarin, with relatively poor success. The Aum Shinrikyo cult experimented with triethylamine as well, N, N-Diethylaniline was used by Aum Shinrikyo for acid reduction. N, N′-Diisopropylcarbodimide was added to sarin produced at Rocky Mountain Arsenal to combat corrosion, isopropylamine was included as part of the M687 155mm field artillery shell, which was a binary sarin weapon system developed by the US Army. Another byproduct of these two processes is diisopropyl methylphosphonate, formed when a second isopropyl alcohol reacts with the sarin itself

5.
Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base
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Maxwell Air Force Base, officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force installation under the Air Education and Training Command. The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, US, occupying the site of the first Wright Flying School, it was named in honor of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, a native of Atmore, Alabama, the base is the headquarters of Air University, a major component of Air Education and Training Command, and is the U. S. Air Forces center for Joint Professional Military Education. The host wing for Maxwell-Gunter is the 42d Air Base Wing, the Air Force Reserve Commands 908th Airlift Wing is a tenant unit and the only operational flying unit at Maxwell. The 908 AW and its subordinate 357th Airlift Squadron operates eight C-130H Hercules aircraft for airlift in support of combatant commanders worldwide. As an AFRC airlift unit, the 908th is operationally gained by the Air Mobility Command, Gunter Annex is a separate installation under the 42 ABW. Originally known as Gunter Field, it became known as Gunter Air Force Station when its runways were closed. It was later renamed Gunter Air Force Base during the 1980s, as a hedge against future Base Realignment and Closure closure actions, Gunter AFB was consolidated under Maxwell AFB in March 1992 to create a combined installation known as Maxwell/Gunter AFB. Maxwell AFB is also the site of Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery, toward the end of February 1910, the Wright Brothers decided to open one of the worlds earliest flying schools at the site that would subsequently become Maxwell AFB. The Wrights taught the principles of flying, including take-offs, balancing, turns, the Wright Flying School closed on May 26,1910. The field served as a depot during World War I. In fact, the built the first plane made in Montgomery. Repair activity at the depot was sharply curtailed at the end of the war, the Aviation Repair Depots land was leased by the U. S. Army during World War I, and later purchased on January 11,1920 for $34,327. Diminished postwar activity caused the U. S, War Department in 1919 to announce that it planned to close thirty-two facilities around the country, including the Aviation Repair Depot. In 1919, the Aviation Repair Depot had a $27,000 monthly civilian payroll in 1919, the loss of the field would have been a serious blow to the local Montgomery economy. The field remained open into the early 1920s only because the War Department was slow in closing facilities, after this initial reprieve, the War Department announced in 1922 that facilities on the original closure list would indeed close in the very near future. City officials were not surprised to hear that Aviation Repair Depot remained on the list, on November 8,1922, the War Department redesignated the depot as Maxwell Field in honor of Atmore, Alabama native, Second Lieutenant William C. On 12 August 1920, engine trouble forced Lieutenant Maxwell to attempt to land his DH-4 in a field in the Philippines

6.
United States chemical weapons program
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Destruction of stockpiled chemical weapons began in 1985 and is still ongoing. The U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, continues to operate for purely defensive research, in World War I, the U. S. produced its own chemical munitions. It had produced 5,770 metric tons of these weapons and this was about 4% of the total chemical weapons produced for that war and only just over 1% of the eras most effective weapon, mustard gas. By the time of the armistice on 11 November 1918, a plant near Willoughby, Ohio, was producing 10 tons per day of the substance, for a total of about 150 tons. Lewisite was the major American contribution to the weapon inventory of World War I. It was developed by Captain Winford Lee Lewis of the U. S and it is uncertain what effect this new chemical agent would have had on the battlefield, however, as it degrades in moist conditions. After the war, the U. S. was party to the Washington Arms Conference Treaty of 1922 which would have banned chemical weapons, the U. S. continued to stockpile chemical weapons, eventually exceeding 30,000 tons of material. Chemical weapons were not used by the U. S. or the other Allies during World War II, however, quantities of such weapons were deployed to Europe for use in case Germany initiated chemical warfare. According to the U. S. military account, Sixty-nine deaths were attributed in whole or in part to the mustard gas, the whole affair was kept secret at the time and for many years after the war. After the war, the Allies recovered German artillery shells containing three new nerve agents developed by the Germans, prompting further research into nerve agents by all of the former Allies. Thousands of American soldiers were exposed to warfare agents during Cold War testing programs as well as in accidents, in 1968, one such accident killed approximately 6,400 sheep when an agent drifted out of Dugway Proving Ground during a test. One of the compounds, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, was assigned the NATO code BZ and was weaponized at the beginning of the 1960s for possible battlefield use. This agent was employed by American troops as a counterinsurgency weapon in the Vietnam War. On November 25,1969, President Richard Nixon unilaterally renounced the first use of chemical weapons and he issued a unilateral decree halting production and transport of chemical weapons which remains in effect. From 1967 to 1970 in Operation CHASE, the U. S. disposed of chemical weapons by sinking ships laden with the weapons in the deep Atlantic, the U. S. entered the Geneva Protocol in 1975 at the same time it ratified the Biological Weapons Convention. This was the first operative international treaty on chemical weapons that the United States was party to, the U. S. began stockpile reductions in the 1980s, removing some outdated munitions and destroying its entire stock of BZ beginning in 1988. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan made an agreement with Chancellor Helmut Kohl to remove the U. S. stockpile of weapons from Germany. In May 1991, President George H. W. Bush unilaterally committed the United States to destroying all chemical weapons and renounced the right to chemical weapon retaliation

7.
2nd Chemical Battalion (United States)
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The 2nd Chemical Battalion is a United States Army chemical unit stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, United States, and is part of the 48th Chemical Brigade. The battalion can trace its lineage from the 30th Engineer Regiment and has served in World War I, World War II, Korean War, Operation Desert Storm, and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Originally constituted as the 30 Engineer Regiment which was activated on 15 August 1917 at Camp American University, Washington, the general staff of the American Expeditionary Force decided to establish a Gas Service, part of which would be an offensive gas regiment. Shortly thereafter, General Order 31 from the General Headquarters of the AEF officially activated the Gas Service Section with Colonel Amos Fries in command, the 30th Engineer Regiment served in France during World War I equipped with the 4 inch Stokes Mortar. On 13 July 1918, it was redesignated as the 1st Gas Regiment and following the end of World War I, the regiment was disbanded on 28 February 1919 at Camp Kendrick, New Jersey. Later reraised on 24 February 1920 at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, it was redesignated on 5 February 1929 as the 1st Chemical Regiment and deactivated in 1935 and disbanded on 12 March 1942. The men and equipment were transferred to the 2nd Separate Chemical Battalion and those companies were officially activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on 1 April 1942. The battalion arrived at Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation, Virginia on 4 June 1943 for transport to North Africa, on 30 August 1917 Captain Earl J. Atkisson was assigned the task of raising and training the fledgling gas regiment. Atkisson then set out acquiring officers, enlisted men, equipment, beginning on 19 October 1917, the influx of enlisted personnel into the regiment was near continuous. The regiments first enlisted man was an F. C. Devlin, Devlin applied for enlistment in Pittsburgh, enlisted at Washington Barracks and reported for duty at Camp American University on 19 October. Before deploying to France in 1917, many of the soldiers in the 30th Engineer Regiment spent their time stateside in training that did not emphasize any chemical warfare skills. Much of the training stateside for the members of the only chemical unit focused on drill, marching, guard duty. Despite the conventional training, the public perceived the 30th as dealing mainly with poisonous gas, by the time those in the 30th Engineers arrived in France, most of them knew nothing of chemical warfare and had no specialized equipment. Once in Europe, troops with the 30th spent weeks digging trenches before finally receiving instruction in chemical warfare skills, including firing smoke and gas, a few companies from the 1st Gas Regiment participated in combat during the 1918 Battle of Saint-Mihiel, but even then only fired smoke. Thus, even at the outset of the late-1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive, about two weeks after the United States Army Chemical Warfare Service was created, on 13 July 1918, the 30th Engineers was re-designated as the 1st Gas Regiment. The regiment was the first complete fighting unit of the new CWS and was entirely self-contained, including manufacturing, following World War I, the 1st Gas Regiment was deactivated, reactivated and re-designated several times. The 1st Gas Regiment was demobilized on 28 February 1919 at Camp Kendrick in New Jersey, less than one year later, on 24 February 1920 the regiment was reconstituted at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland. Nine years later, on 5 February 1929 the unit was once again re-designated, the 1st Chemical was deactivated in 1935, once again at Edgewood, and finally disbanded on 12 March 1942

8.
Chemical Corps
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The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. The corps was founded as the U. S, Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Its name was changed to the Chemical Corps in 1946, for most of its history, the Chemical Corps was tasked with delivering chemical weapons rather than defending against them. Discussion of the dates back to the American Civil War. A letter to the War Department dated 5 April 1862 from New York City resident John Doughty proposed the use of shells to drive the Confederate Army from its positions. Doughty included a drawing of the shell with his letter. It is unknown how the military reacted to Doughtys proposal but the letter was unnoticed in a pile of old official documents until modern times, another American, Forrest Shepherd, also proposed a chemical weapon attack against the Confederates. Shepherds proposal involved hydrogen chloride, an attack that would have likely been non-lethal, Shepherd was a well-known geologist at the time and his proposal was in the form of a letter directly to the White House. The earliest predecessors to the United States Army Chemical Corps owe their existence to changes of military technology early in World War I. Despite this early interest, troops were supplied with masks nor trained for offensive gas warfare until the U. S. became involved in World War I in 1917. By 1917, the use of weapons by both the Allied and Central Powers had become commonplace along the Western, Eastern and Italian Fronts. In 1917, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, directed the Bureau of Mines to assist the Army and Navy in creating a gas war program. After the Director of the Bureau of Mines formally offered the service to the Military Committee of the National Research Council. On 5 July 1917 General John J. Pershing oversaw the creation of a Gas Service Section, the predecessor to the 1st Gas Regiment was the 30th Engineer Regiment. The 30th was activated on 15 August 1917 at Camp American University, Washington, additional War Department orders established a Chemical Service Section that included 47 commissioned officers and 95 enlisted personnel. Despite the conventional training, the public perceived the 30th as dealing mainly with poisonous gas, by the time those in the 30th Engineers arrived in France most of them knew nothing of chemical warfare and had no specialized equipment. The 30th Engineer Regiment was redesignated the First Gas Regiment in 1918 and deployed to assist and support Army gas operations, the Chemical Warfare Service, the predecessor to the Chemical Corps, was officially formed on 28 June 1918 and encompassed the Gas Service and Chemical Service Sections. By 1 November 1918 the CWS included 1,654 commissioned officers and 18,027 enlisted personnel, major General William L. Sibert was appointed as the first director of the CWS on the day it was created

9.
Anniston Army Depot
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The depot is located in Bynum, Alabama. It was placed on the NPL Superfundlist in 1990 because of soil and groundwater contamination with antimony, chromium, lead, thallium, the depot is located in Calhoun County, Alabama,10 miles west of Anniston. It covers 25 square miles of land, or 15, 200-acres and its northern side is the Pelham Range portion of the Fort McClellan. The central and northern portions of the Depot span over 13, 000-acres, the southern side of the Depot is the Southeastern Industrial Area, a 600-acre industrial operations area with more than 50 buildings and a vehicle test track. As of 2014, the Depot employs 3,400 civilian workers, tanks and other equipment are repaired and tested, but historically Annistons a main role since World War II has been as a major munitions storage site. Anniston is one of seven depots in the United States where chemical weapons are stored, the stockpile has included rockets, bombs, projectiles, and land mines armed with Sarin, VX nerve agent, or mustard gas. The last chemical munitions were destroyed in September 2011, ANAD is the only depot capable of performing maintenance on heavy-tracked combat vehicles and their components and houses a state of the art 250,000 sq. ft. Small Arms Overhaul facility, which opened in January 2012 to replace an outdated facility, during the Iraq War, over 1,000 M1 tanks, Howitzers, and other armored vehicles were stored awaiting re-engineering. ANAD is the Armys primary site for assembly, reset. All ten of the Stryker vehicle variants are assembled in the Nichols Industrial Park area by contractor General Dynamics − Land Systems. The Depot houses and operates a facility for the repair, restoration, and/or upgrade of weapons such as the Beretta M9 pistol, M16 rifle. Any firearm deemed unusable or obsolete is destroyed on the premises, since then, contaminated ground water has been pumped and treated, contaminated soil has either been dug up or capped, and land use controls have been put in place. Contaminated fractured bedrock needs to be addressed, the Depot has a Restoration Advisory Board composed of community members and representatives from the Depot and other agencies. Official US Armys Anniston Army Depot Website Brief at Global Security

10.
Deseret Chemical Depot
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The Deseret Chemical Depot was a U. S. Army chemical weapon storage area located in Utah,60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It is related to the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, the area was used to store chemical weapons between 1942 and 2012 with weapons destruction beginning in August 1996 at the Depot which held, at that time, 45% of the total U. S. stockpile. After initial demilitarization operations concerning the Weteye bomb concluded a total of 888 of those bombs were left in storage at Rocky Mountain Arsenal. After rounds of protests from residents of Utah, the states governor, the first transfer of Weteyes took place in August 1981 and the moves continued for three weeks. After these transfers the South Area became known as Deseret Chemical Depot, as of January 2007,7,593 tons of chemical weapons have been destroyed using incineration. All GB was destroyed by March 2002 and all VX by June 2005, in 2006, the facility was changed-over to handle destruction of mustard gas in ton-sized containers. By March 15,2009,3,216 ton containers and 54,453 projectiles of mustard gas had been destroyed, the last explosively configured mustard gas munition was reported destroyed in May 2010. All Tabun was destroyed by November 10,2011, Disposal of land mines containing mustard gas as well as a small stockpile of Lewisite has not been completed. All disposal operations concluded January 21,2012, the cemetery is roughly a mile north of the incinerator on a hilltop. It was the first time that the alarm, which alerts employees to possible threats, had been sounded since new security measures were instituted after 9/11. As soon as the alert was sounded, area schools were notified of a terror threat. Army officials later stated that the trespasser, who was dressed in dark clothing, despite the immediate setting up of roadblocks and a combined search by Army units and helicopters, no trace of the intruder was found. In such a case, supplies contained at the depot would be transferred to nearby Tooele Army Depot, Deseret Test Center Tooele Army Depot U. S. Army Chemical Materials Agency Official site Utah state site National Research Council. Risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

11.
Edgewood Chemical Activity
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The Edgewood Chemical Activity was a U. S. Army site located in Edgewood, Maryland that stored chemical weapons. Its construction was started by Ordnance Corps in November 1917 and completed in less than a year, the arsenal was to employ about 10,000 civilian and military personnel in fabrication of chemical weapons and filling gas shells with phosgene, chlorpicrin, chlorine and mustard gas. Since 1941, the U. S. Army stored approximately five percent of the original chemical agent in steel ton containers. Construction of the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility was completed in 2002, destruction was completed in February 2006, with 1,622 tons of agent destroyed. This facility used neutralization followed by bio-treatment to destroy mustard gas agent drained from ton containers, the facilitys permit was officially closed in June 2007. Edgewood Arsenal experiments United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense Official site

12.
Hawthorne Army Depot
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Hawthorne Army Depot is a U. S. Army ammunition storage depot located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake, the depot covers 147,000 acres or 226 sq. mi. and has 600,000 square feet storage space in 2,427 bunkers. HWAD is the Worlds Largest Depot and is divided into three ammunition storage and production areas, plus an area housing command headquarters, facilities engineering shops. Hawthorne Army Depot stores reserve ammunitions to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict, as such, it is only partially staffed during peacetime, but provision has been made to rapidly expand staffing as necessary. The depot is run by an independent contractor under an agreement with the government, the Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne was established in September 1930. It was redesignated Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant in 1977 when it transferred to Army control as part of the Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition, in 1994, it ended its production mission and became Hawthorne Army Depot. The depot began its existence as the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot and it was established after a major disaster occurred at the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot, in New Jersey, in 1926. The accident virtually destroyed the depot, causing damage to adjacent Picatinny Arsenal and the surrounding communities, killing 21 people. The monetary loss to the Navy alone was $84 million, just over $1 billion today, a court of inquiry investigating the explosion recommended that a depot be established in a remote area within 1,000 miles of the west coast to serve the Pacific area. Construction began on Hawthorne NAD in July 1928, and NAD received its first shipment of explosives on October 19,1930. When the United States entered World War II, the Depot became the area for bombs, rockets. Employment was at its highest at 5,625 in 1945, by 1948, NAD occupied about 104 square miles of the 327 square miles area under Navy jurisdiction. Subsequently, excess Navy lands were turned over to the Bureau of Land Management, security for the 3,000 bunkers at NAD was provided by the U. S. Marine Corps. Beginning in September 1930 and during World War II,600 Marines were assigned to the facility, in 1977, that number had been reduced to 117, security is now contracted to a private company. The mission and functions at NAD remained much the same over the facilitys history and it also served as an important ammunition center during the Korean and Vietnam Wars with several thousand structures on 236 square miles of land. Stored ammunition that had examined and repacked was given the code HAW followed by the last two digits of the year. In 1977, NAD was transferred to the Army, and renamed the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant, in 1980, HWAAP was redesignated as a government-owned contractor-operated facility. Day & Zimmermann Hawthorne Corporation is the current operating contractor, in 1994, the facility received its current name of the Hawthorne Army Depot

13.
Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System
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Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System was the U. S. Armys first chemical munitions disposal facility. It was located on Johnston Island, at Johnston Atoll and completed its mission, prior to the beginning of destruction operations at JACADS, the atoll held about 6. 6% of the entire U. S. stockpile of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons were stockpiled on Johnston Atoll beginning in 1971, including weapons transferred from Okinawa during the 1971 Operation Red Hat. Some of the weapons stored at the site, including Sarin. These shipments followed a 1986 agreement between the U. S. and Germany to move the munitions, the remainder of the chemical weapons were a small number of World War II era weapons shipped from the Solomon Islands. In 1985, the U. S. Congress mandated that all chemical weapons stockpiles at Johnston Atoll, mostly mustard and nerve agents, planning for JACADS began in 1981 and initial construction started in 1985–1986. In August 1985, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a 10-year permit to the Army allowing it to construct, operations began at JACADS in June 1990, commencing with operational verification testing. The first weapon disposal took place on June 30,1990 and that day, JACADS became the first U. S. chemical weapons disposal facility. The OVT phase of operations lasted until March 1993, transition from the testing phase to full-scale operations began in May 1993 and, in August, full-scale operations began. Twice, in 1993 and 1994, the facility had to be evacuated because of hurricanes, on November 29,2000, the last of the chemical weapons at JACADS were disposed of. The last disposal operation destroyed more than 13,000 VX filled land mines, two years after the last chemical weapons at JACADS were destroyed, the Army submitted the plan to dismantle the facility to the EPA, it was approved in September 2002. Demolition on the 80, 000-square-foot facility, home to the incinerators, laboratories and control rooms, in November 2003 a plaque was dedicated to JACADS personnel. JACADS workers utilized incineration to destroy the chemical agents at Johnston Atoll, after workers loaded the weapons onto a conveyor, automated equipment would take over the process. The equipment removed the explosive component of the weapon and drained the chemical agent, the explosive and chemical agent were then incinerated at high temperature. The metal weapons casings were then thermally decontaminated and scrapped, by early 1996, the facility at Johnston Atoll had destroyed about 3.5 percent of the overall U. S. chemical weapons stockpile. Included in that amount, out of total stockpile of 31,000 tons, was two pounds of mustard and nerve agents destroyed by JACADS. Also destroyed at JACADS was over 2,000 tons of the nerve agents sarin, in total, the program at Johnston Atoll destroyed 412,000 individual chemical munitions. There were a few chemical weapons related accidents during the period JACADS was in operation, in January 1993, the burster charge on a 105 mm artillery shell ignited

14.
Newport Chemical Depot
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It is located near Newport, in west central Indiana, thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. The site was used as a site for the solid explosives trinitrotoluene and RDX. It also served as the site for all of the U. S. militarys nerve agent VX. All VX nerve agent at the site was neutralized by August 8,2008 and it was the third of the Armys nine chemical depots to completely destroy its stockpile. Newport was founded during World War II to produce the high explosive RDX. The site is 6,990 acres, located in west central Indiana, near the Wabash River and it was built during 1942–1943 by the E. I. Dupont de Nemours & Co. the original operating contractor of the site, given the immediate need for RDX, the plant was designed to employ the older Woolwich method for manufacturing the explosive. As a result, the plant manufactured lower amounts of RDX compared to the Holston Ordnance Works, the government originally acquired 21,986 acres to build the plant. Although most of the land was used for farming, there were 66 clusters of buildings, six cemeteries, the cemeteries, one apparently dating to 1810, were still maintained as of 1998. Construction started Jan 12,1942, and production started July 20,1942, the plant was mothballed in 1946, but its RDX production was reactivated in 1951 for the Korean War. In 1943–1944, the Newport Army Ammunition Plant added a water plant. During the 1950s, it was used to heavy water for the U. S. nuclear weapons program. The Army first built a VX facility at the site in 1959 when it was known as the Newport Chemical Plant, in 1964, the Wabash River Ordnance Works and the Newport Army Chemical Plant were effectively combined and renamed the Newport Army Ammunition Plant. Beginning in 1961, Newport became a site for weapons manufacturing, producing the entire U. S. stockpile of VX nerve agent at the time. It was also used to store and eventually neutralize 1,269 short tons of the agent when the U. S. chemical weapons program was shutdown. The stored VX amounted to 4. 1% of the U. S. stockpile of weapons in 1997 when the Chemical Weapons Convention came into effect. The U. S. Army Chemical Materials Agency designed the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility for the purpose of destroying the VX chemical agent stored at the Newport Chemical Depot. Construction of the NECDF was completed in June 2003, the Army began VX agent destruction operations in May 2005, and completed operations in August 2008

15.
Pine Bluff Chemical Activity
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Pine Bluff Chemical Activity is a subordinate organization of the United States Army Chemical Materials Agency located at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The U. S. Army stored approximately twelve percent of its chemical weapons at the Pine Bluff Arsenal since 1942. Destruction of the last chemical weapons occurred on November 12,2010, Pine Bluff Arsenal stored 90,409 M55 GB rockets,19,608 M55 VX rockets,9,378 M23 VX landmines and 3,705 mustard ton containers. It was also the home for the Binary Chemical Weapons Facility, the facility created the two toxic agents that would combine to form VX as well as built the bombs to deliver the nerve agent. Construction of the facility began in the mid-1980s and was mothballed prior to completion in the early 1990s as part of the chemical weapons treaties, the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility was completed in 2002, and the Army began weapons disposal in March 2005. By May 2007, the facility had destroyed all of its GB - containing rockets, in February 2008 they processed their last VX-containing rocket and in May 2008 began processing VX landmines. Landmine processing was completed in June 2008 and the facility changed over to processing ton containers of mustard gas, workers began destruction of mustard agent-filled ton containers in December 2008. The facility reached 100% destruction of its chemical stockpile of 3,850 metric tons on November 12,2010

16.
Pueblo Chemical Depot
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The Pueblo Chemical Depot is a chemical weapons storage site located in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The Pueblo Chemical Depot is one of the last two sites in the United States with chemical munitions and chemical material. The Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant which is under the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program will destroy its stockpile of 155-mm and 105-mm artillery shells and 4. 2-in, mortars, all of which contain a form of the chemical agent mustard. The depot houses 2,611 tons of agent in approximately 780,000 munitions. The current course of action for the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, included in the Presidents Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request, after systemization and pilot testing of the facility, destruction operations began in spring 2015 with full-scale operations beginning later in 2016. Destruction of all munitions is expected to be complete in 2019, sulfur agent is destroyed through neutralization and biotreatment. Energetic components are first removed through robotics and disposed, the weapon body is then robotically accessed to wash out the sulfur agent using water at a high pressure. The sulfur agent is neutralized with caustic solution and hot water producing a byproduct of hydrolysate, biotreatement occurs when the hydrolysate is further broken down with microbes, producing biosludge and water. Biosludge is filtered and sent to a disposal facility, problematic munitions are those that have leaked or are in poor physical condition making it difficult for automated equipment processing. A specialized facility named the PCAPP Training Facility is located at the Pueblo Memorial Airport Industrial Park and offers training courses, Training are designed to ensure the safety of the employees and the surrounding environment. Employee are trained to operate the equipment and use Demilitarization Protective Ensemble or DPE, the DPE is an encapsulated air-supplied chemical protective suit. Samples are taken at stages and analyzed for any leakage of the chemical agent. The plant will operate all the chemical weapons have been destroyed. Closure activities are slated to be wrapped up by 2022 and this is far outside the deadline set by the Chemical Weapons Convention. PuebloPlex will head the redevelopment of Pueblo Chemical Depot, Pueblo Depot Activity Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant United States chemical weapons program ACWA Website

17.
Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility
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The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility or TOCDF, is a U. S. Army facility located at Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah that was used for dismantling chemical weapons. Destruction is a requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention and is monitored by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Deseret Chemical Depot held 44% of the nations chemical stockpile when processing began, and it had held some of these chemical munitions since 1942. TOCDF was constructed in the early 1990s and began destruction of chemical agent-filled munitions on 22 August 1996, as of September 2011, the facility had processed 99% of its stockpile. TOCDF processed all of its VX, Sarin and mustard gas at its main facility, in advance of plant closing, two ponds were revitalized and the surrounded area reseeded as well as 29 miles of railroad being removed. Disposal of all chemical weapons concluded on 21 January 2012 and it was the last depot to complete its disposal operations under the U. S. Each of the weapons listed contained Sarin 28,945 – 115mm self-propelled rockets containing 154, Processing of VX-contaminated containers was completed in October 2005. Inside the first automated area, the Explosion Containment Room, explosive components are removed from the items, the items then are carried on automated cars to another room, called the Munition Processing Bay, where automated machinery sucks the liquid agent out. The liquid is sent to holding tanks, the liquid agent is destroyed in one of two high-temperature ovens called Liquid Incinerators. Deseret Test Center United States and weapons of mass destruction Tooele Army Depot Chemical Materials Agency, risk Assessment and Management at Deseret Chemical Depot and the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility

18.
Umatilla Chemical Depot
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The Umatilla Chemical Depot, based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U. S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons stored at the depot consisted of various munitions and 1 short ton containers containing GB and VX nerve agents. All munitions had been destroyed by 2011 and base closure operations were expected to be completed by 2015. The Umatilla Chemical Depot opened in 1941, to prepare for World War II, the depots mission was to store and maintain a variety of military items, from blankets to ammunition. The depot took on its chemical weapons storage mission in 1962, from 1990 to 1994 the facility reorganized in preparation for eventual closure, shipping all conventional ammunition and supplies to other installations. The Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility is designed for the destruction of the weapons stored at the Umatilla Chemical Depot. The facility was completed in 2001, the Army began weapons disposal on September 8,2004 and completed disposal on October 25,2011. Destruction is a requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention and monitored by the OPCW, the facility destroyed 220,604 munitions and containers containing 3,717 short tons of GB, HD and VX via high-temperature incineration, representing 100 percent of the bases stockpile. While destroying 50% of its stockpile took six years, the processing of the second 50% was expected to only two years. An emphasis on risk reduction prioritised destruction of the most modern and dangerous compounds and destruction of smaller containers, which had greater risk of theft, explosion, and leakage

19.
Project 112
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Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapon experimentation project conducted by the United States Department of Defense from 1962 to 1973. The project started under John F. Kennedys administration, and was authorized by his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the name Project 112 refers to this projects number in the 150 project review process authorized by McNamara. Canada and the United Kingdom also participated in some Project 112 activities, Project 112 primarily concerned the use of aerosols to disseminate biological and chemical agents that could produce controlled temporary incapacitation. The test program would be conducted on a scale at extracontinental test sites in the Central and South Pacific and Alaska in conjunction with Britain, Canada. Test sites included Porton Down, Ralston and at least 13 US warships, the project was coordinated from Deseret Test Center, Utah. As of 2005 publicly available information on Project 112 remains incomplete, prepare a plan for the development of an adequate biological and chemical deterrent capability, to include cost estimates, and appraisal of domestic and international political consequences. The Joint Chiefs established a Joint Task Force that recommended a plan to be conducted in three phases. Experiments were planned and conducted by the Deseret Test Center and Deseret Chemical Depot at Fort Douglas, the tests were designed to test the effects of biological weapons and chemical weapons on personnel, plants, animals, insects, toxins, vehicles, ships and equipment. Project 112 and Project SHAD experiments involved unknowing test subjects who did not give informed consent, experiments involved humans, plants, animals, insects, aircraft, ships, submarines and amphibious vehicles. Agents and simulants were usually dispensed as aerosols using spraying devices or bomblets, in May 1965, vulnerability tests in the U. S. using the anthrax simulant Bacillus globigii were performed in the Washington D. C. area by SOD covert agents. One test was conducted at the Greyhound bus terminal and the other at the terminal of the National Airport. In these tests the bacteria were released from spray generators hidden in specially built briefcases, SOD also conducted a series of tests in the New York City Subway system between 7 and 10 June 1966 by dropping light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis var. niger. In the latter tests, results indicated that an epidemic would have occurred. Local police and transit authorities were not informed of these tests, Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of a larger effort called Project 112, which was conducted during the 1960s. The Department of Defense states that Project 112 was initiated out of concern for the ability of the United States to protect, Project 112 consisted of both land-based and sea-based tests. The classified information related to SHAD was not completely cataloged or located in one facility, the existence of Project 112 was categorically denied by the military until May 2000, when a CBS Evening News investigative report produced dramatic revelations about the tests. Revelations concerning Project SHAD were first exposed by independent producer and investigative journalist Eric Longabardi, longabardis 6-year investigation into the still secret program began in early 1994. It ultimately resulted in a series of reports produced by him

20.
Operation LAC
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Operation LAC was a U. S. Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents, there were several tests that occurred prior to the first spraying affiliated with Operation LAC that proved the concept of large-area coverage. Canadian historical files relating to participation in the cite in particular three previous series of tests leading up to those conducted in Operation LAC. September 1950 – Six simulated attacks were conducted upon the San Francisco Bay Area and it was concluded that it was feasible to attack a seaport city with biological aerosol agents from a ship offshore. March–April 1952 – Five trials were conducted off the coast of South Carolina and it was concluded that long-range aerosol clouds could obtain hundreds of miles of travel and large-area coverage when disseminated from ground level under certain meteorological conditions. 1957 – North Sea, East coast of Britain and it was shown that large-area coverage with particles was feasible under most meteorological conditions. In addition, the admitted to spraying in Minnesota locations from 1953 into the mid-1960s. In St. Operation LAC was undertaken in 1957 and 1958 by the U. S. Army Chemical Corps, principally, the operation involved spraying large areas with zinc cadmium sulfide. The U. S. Air Force loaned the Army a C-119, Flying Boxcar, the first test occurred on December 2,1957, along a path from South Dakota to International Falls, Minnesota. The tests were designed to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents, stations on the ground tracked the fluorescent zinc cadmium sulfide particles. During the first test and subsequently, much of the material dispersed ended up being carried by winds into Canada, however, as was the case in the first test, particles were detected up to 1,200 miles away from their drop point. A typical flight line covering 400 miles would release 5,000 pounds of zinc cadmium sulfide and that flight time included four runs of various lengths, one of which was 1,400 miles. The December 2,1957, test was due to a mass of cold air coming south from Canada. It carried the particles from their point and then took a turn northeast. Military operators considered the test a success because some of the particles were detected 1,200 miles away. A February 1958 test at Dugway Proving Ground ended similarly, another Canadian air mass swept through and carried the particles into the Gulf of Mexico. According to Leonard A. Cole, an Army Chemical Corps document titled Summary of Major Events, other sources describe the scope of LAC varyingly, examples include, Midwestern United States, and the states east of the Rockies. Specific locations are mentioned as well, some of those include, a path from South Dakota to Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dugway Proving Ground, Corpus Christi, Texas, north-central Texas, and the San Francisco Bay area

21.
Operation Ranch Hand
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Operation Ranch Hand was a U. S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4, 5-T and 2, 4-D during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called Operation Trail Dust. Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 20 million U. S. gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food, areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971, the Ranch Handers motto was Only you can prevent a forest – a take on the popular U. S. Forest Service poster slogan of Smokey Bear. During the ten years of spraying, over 5 million acres of forest and 500,000 acres of crops were damaged or destroyed. Around 20% of the forests of South Vietnam were sprayed at least once, the herbicides were sprayed by the U. S. Air Force flying C-123s using the call sign Hades. The planes were fitted with specially developed spray tanks with a capacity of 1,000 U. S. gallons of herbicides. A plane sprayed a swath of land that was 80 meters wide and 16 km long in about 4½ minutes, sorties usually consisted of three to five airplanes flying side by side. 95% of the herbicides and defoliants used in the war were sprayed by the U. S. Air Force as part of Operation Ranch Hand, the remaining 5% were sprayed by the U. S. Chemical Corps, other branches, and the Republic of Vietnam using hand sprayers, spray trucks, helicopters and boats. The herbicides used were sprayed at up to 50 times the concentration than for agricultural use. Agent Orange III,66. 6% n-butyl 2, 4-D and 33. 3% n-butyl ester 2,4, the herbicides were procured by the U. S. military from Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto, Hercules Inc. Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company, Diamond Alkali/Shamrock Company, United States Rubber Company, Thompson Chemicals Corporation, Agrisect Company, Hoffman-Taft Inc. and the Ansul Chemical Company. In April 1967, the USAs entire production of 2,4, 5-T was confiscated by the military, foreign sources were tapped into. About 12 million U. S. gallons of dioxin-contaminated herbicides were sprayed over Southeast Asia during American combat operations. In 2005, a New Zealand government minister was quoted and widely reported as saying that Agent Orange chemicals had been supplied from New Zealand to the United States military during the conflict. Shortly after, the minister claimed to have been mis-quoted. From 1962 to 1987,2,4, 5T herbicide had been manufactured at an Ivon Watkins-Dow plant in New Plymouth

22.
Operation Steel Box
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Operation Steel Box, also known as Operation Golden Python, was a 1990 joint U. S. -West German operation which moved 100,000 U. S. chemical weapons from Germany to Johnston Atoll. At U. S. Army Site 59 coor,49.265018,7.712617 near Clausen, West Germany 100,000 GB and VX filled American chemical munitions were stored in 15 concrete bunkers. These munitions were managed by the 330th Ordnance Company and guarded by the 110th Military Police Company both headquartered in nearby Munchweiler, the propellants for these munitions were stored in Leimen Site 67. The BG and VX munitions had undergone a refurbishment in 1980 -1982, the weapons in this depot were scheduled to be moved due to an agreement between the U. S. and West Germany. The 1986 agreement, between Ronald Reagan and Helmut Kohl, provided for the removal of 155 mm and 8 inch unitary chemical projectiles. Operation Steel Box began on July 26,1990 and ended on September 22,1990, the move from the storage facility to an intermediate facility at Miesau utilized trucks and trains, civilian contractors, and U. S. and West German military personnel. The weapons were repacked and shipped by truck from their storage facility until they reached the railway in Miesau, the truck transport portion of the mission involved 28 road convoys which delivered the munitions the 30 miles from Clausen to Miesau. The munitions were carried by special train from Miesau to the port of Nordenham. The train transport was well publicized and escorted by 80 U. S. and West German military, at the port the munitions were loaded onto two modified ships, the SS Gopher State and the SS Flickertail State, by the Armys Technical Escort Unit. The ships were operated by the U. S, Military Sealift Command, and upon leaving Nordenham they sailed for 46 straight days. The ships arrived at Johnston Atoll and on November 18 unloaded the last of their cargo containers, security and emergency response were both concerns during Steel Box. Besides the police and military escort for the trains, the convoys had restricted airspace overhead. Along the route, emergency response teams were on stand-by, while the ships were in port U. S. Navy EOD Detachments provided underwater hull sweeps to ensure limpet mines were not attached to the ships. The 46-day trip at sea was non-stop, with refueling taking place along the route, the ships were also escorted by the U. S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Bainbridge CGN-25 and USS Truxtun CGN-35. The transport ships avoided the Panama Canal, for security reasons, and took the route around Cape Horn, there were no reported chemical agent leaks or security breaches during the transport phase of Steel Box. The 1990 shipments of nerve agents from Germany to JACADS caused several South Pacific nations to express unease, at the 1990 South Pacific Forum in Vanuatu, the island nations of the South Pacific indicated that their concern was that the South Pacific would become a toxic waste dumping ground. Other concerns raised included the security of the shipments, which were refueled at sea and escorted by U. S. guided missile destroyers, while they were en route to Johnston Atoll. In Australia, Prime Minister Bob Hawke drew criticism from some of these nations for his support of the chemical weapons destruction at Johnston Atoll

23.
Chlorine
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Chlorine is a chemical element with symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is a gas at room temperature. It is an extremely reactive element and a strong oxidising agent, among the elements, it has the highest electron affinity, the most common compound of chlorine, sodium chloride, has been known since ancient times. Around 1630, chlorine gas was first synthesised in a chemical reaction, Carl Wilhelm Scheele wrote a description of chlorine gas in 1774, supposing it to be an oxide of a new element. In 1809, chemists suggested that the gas might be an element, and this was confirmed by Sir Humphry Davy in 1810. Because of its reactivity, all chlorine in the Earths crust is in the form of ionic chloride compounds. It is the second-most abundant halogen and twenty-first most abundant chemical element in Earths crust and these crustal deposits are nevertheless dwarfed by the huge reserves of chloride in seawater. Elemental chlorine is produced from brine by electrolysis. The high oxidising potential of chlorine led to the development of commercial bleaches and disinfectants. As a common disinfectant, elemental chlorine and chlorine-generating compounds are used directly in swimming pools to keep them clean. Elemental chlorine at high concentrations is extremely dangerous and poisonous for all living organisms, in the form of chloride ions, chlorine is necessary to all known species of life. Other types of compounds are rare in living organisms. In the upper atmosphere, chlorine-containing organic molecules such as chlorofluorocarbons have been implicated in ozone depletion, small quantities of elemental chlorine are generated by oxidation of chloride to hypochlorite in neutrophils as part of the immune response against bacteria. Its importance in food was very well known in antiquity and was sometimes used as payment for services for Roman generals. Around 1630, chlorine was recognized as a gas by the Flemish chemist, the element was first studied in detail in 1774 by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, and he is credited with the discovery. He called it dephlogisticated muriatic acid air since it is a gas and he failed to establish chlorine as an element, mistakenly thinking that it was the oxide obtained from the hydrochloric acid. He named the new element within this oxide as muriaticum, in 1809, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thénard tried to decompose dephlogisticated muriatic acid air by reacting it with charcoal to release the free element muriaticum

24.
Phosgene
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Phosgene is the chemical compound with the formula COCl2. This colorless gas gained infamy as a weapon during World War I where it was responsible for about 85% of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons. It is also a valued industrial reagent and building block in synthesis of pharmaceuticals, in low concentrations, its odor resembles freshly cut hay or grass. In addition to its production, small amounts occur from the breakdown. The chemical was named by combining the Greek words phos and genesis, Phosgene is a planar molecule as predicted by VSEPR theory. The C=O distance is 1.18 Å, the C−Cl distance is 1.74 Å and it is one of the simplest acid chlorides, being formally derived from carbonic acid. Typically, the reaction is conducted between 50 and 150 °C, above 200 °C, phosgene reverts to carbon monoxide and chlorine, Keq =0.05. World production of this compound was estimated to be 2.74 million tonnes in 1989, because of safety issues, phosgene is often produced and consumed within the same plant, and extraordinary measures are made to contain this toxic gas. It is listed on schedule 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, upon ultraviolet radiation in the presence of oxygen, chloroform slowly converts into phosgene by a radical reaction. To suppress this photodegradation, chloroform is often stored in brown-tinted glass containers, chlorinated compounds used to remove oil from metals, such as automotive brake cleaners, are converted to phosgene by the UV rays of arc welding processes. Phosgene may also be produced during testing for leaks of older-style refrigerant gases, chloromethanes were formerly leak-tested in situ by employing a small gas torch with a sniffer tube and a copper reaction plate in the flame nozzle of the torch. If any refrigerant gas was leaking from a pipe or joint, in the process, phosgene gas would be created due to the thermal reaction. Electronic sensing of refrigerant gases phased out the use of testing for leaks in the 1980s. Phosgene can be released during building fires, in one instance, a deputy fire chief was killed ten days after inhaling fumes that wafted down outside a burning restaurant. After a two-day hospitalization he had appeared to recover, but ultimately suffered cardiac arrest at home following from tracheobronchial inflammation, alveolar hemorrhage, the phosgene was produced by decomposing freon-22 after flames ducted up from a grease fire heated an air-conditioning unit on the roof and ruptured a hose. The great majority of phosgene is used in the production of isocyanates and these two isocyanates are precursors to polyurethanes. In the research laboratory phosgene still finds limited use in organic synthesis, a variety of substitutes have been developed, notably trichloromethyl chloroformate, a liquid at room temperature, and bis carbonate, a crystalline substance. Thionyl chloride is commonly and more safely employed for this application

25.
QL (chemical)
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Isopropyl aminoethylmethyl phosphonite, also known as O- O-ethyl methylphosphonite, is a precursor chemical to the nerve agent VX. QL is a component in chemical weapons, mainly VX nerve agent. It, along with Methylphosphonyl difluoride, was developed during the 1980s in order to replace an aging stockpile of chemical weapons. QL is listed as a Schedule One chemical by the Chemical Weapons Convention, QL itself is a relatively non-toxic chemical. However, when reacting with sulfur, the corresponding sulphide of QL isomerizes into the highly toxic VX molecule

26.
Sulfur mustard
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Sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, is a cytotoxic and vesicant chemical warfare agent with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs. Related chemical compounds with chemical structure and similar properties form a class of compounds known collectively as sulfur mustards or mustard agents. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature, when used in impure form, such as warfare agents, they are usually yellow-brown in color and have an odor resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name. Sulfur mustard was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel and Wilhelm Steinkopf, Mustard agents are regulated under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. Three classes of chemicals are monitored under this Convention, with sulfur and nitrogen mustard grouped in Schedule 1, Mustard agents could be deployed on the battlefield by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from warplanes. Sulfur mustard is the compound with formula 2S. Sulfur mustard is a liquid at normal temperatures. The pure compound has a point of 14 °C and decomposes before boiling at 218 °C. The compound readily eliminates a chloride ion by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution to form a cyclic sulfonium ion, oxidative stress would be another pathology involved in sulfur mustard toxicity. Sulfur mustard is not very soluble in water but is soluble in fat. In the wider sense, compounds with the structural element BCH2CH2X, where X is any leaving group, such compounds can form cyclic onium ions that are good alkylating agents. Examples are bisether, the amines, and sulfur sesquimustard, which has two α-chloroethyl thioether groups connected by an ethylene group and these compounds have a similar ability to alkylate DNA, but their physical properties, e. g. melting points, may vary. Mustard agent has extremely powerful vesicant effects on its victims, in addition, it is strongly mutagenic and carcinogenic, due to its alkylating properties. Because people exposed to mustard agent rarely suffer immediate symptoms, and mustard-contaminated areas may appear completely normal and these are chemical burns and are very debilitating. Mustard agent vapor easily penetrates clothing fabrics such as wool or cotton, if the victims eyes were exposed then they become sore, starting with conjunctivitis, after which the eyelids swell, resulting in temporary blindness. In rare cases of extreme exposure to sulfur mustard vapors, corneal ulceration, anterior chamber scarring. In these severe and infrequent cases, corneal transplantation has been used as a treatment option, miosis may also occur, which is probably the result from the cholinomimetic activity of mustard. At very high concentrations, if inhaled, mustard agent causes bleeding and blistering within the system, damaging mucous membranes

Chemical warfare
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Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. None of these fall under the conventional weapons which are primarily effective due to their destructive potential. With proper protective equipment, training, and decontamination measures, the effects of chemical weapons can be overcome. Many nations possess va

1.
The Art of War described the use of fire weapons against the enemy.

4.
Lyon Playfair proposed the industrial manufacture of cyanide artillery shells for use during the Crimean War.

Shell (projectile)
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A shell is a payload-carrying projectile that, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used, originally, it was called a bombshell, but shell has come to be unambigu

2.
US scientists with a full-scale cut-away model of the W48 155-millimeter nuclear artillery shell, a very small tactical nuclear weapon with an explosive yield equivalent to 72 tons of TNT (0.072 kiloton). It could be fired from any standard 155 mm (6.1 inch) howitzer (e.g., the M114 or M198)

3.
155 mm M107 projectiles. All have fuzes fitted

4.
Some shells displayed in Taipei

United States Army
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The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, the United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception f

1.
Storming of Redoubt #10 in the Siege of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War prompted the British government to begin negotiations, resulting in the Treaty of Paris and British recognition of the United States of America.

2.
Emblem of the United States Department of the Army

3.
General Andrew Jackson stands on the parapet of his makeshift defenses as his troops repulse attacking Highlanders during the defense of New Orleans, the final major battle of the War of 1812

4.
The Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil War

Sarin
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Sarin, or GB, is a colorless, odorless liquid, used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent. It is generally considered a weapon of mass destruction, production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed as of April 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance. In June 1994, t

1.
Rabbit used to check for leaks at sarin production plant, Rocky Mountain Arsenal (1970)

Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base
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Maxwell Air Force Base, officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force installation under the Air Education and Training Command. The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, US, occupying the site of the first Wright Flying School, it was named in honor of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, a native of At

1.
Air Command and Staff College trains strategic leaders at Maxwell AFB

2.
Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, for whom the base is named.

3.
Austin Hall was built in 1931 to serve as the Air Corps Tactical School's main building.

4.
Overhead Maxwell Field in 1937

United States chemical weapons program
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Destruction of stockpiled chemical weapons began in 1985 and is still ongoing. The U. S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, continues to operate for purely defensive research, in World War I, the U. S. produced its own chemical munitions. It had produced 5,770 metric tons of these weapons and

2nd Chemical Battalion (United States)
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The 2nd Chemical Battalion is a United States Army chemical unit stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, United States, and is part of the 48th Chemical Brigade. The battalion can trace its lineage from the 30th Engineer Regiment and has served in World War I, World War II, Korean War, Operation Desert Storm, and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedo

1.
Coat of arms

Chemical Corps
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The Chemical Corps is the branch of the United States Army tasked with defending against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. The corps was founded as the U. S, Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Its name was changed to the Chemical Corps in 1946, for most of its history, the Chemical Corps was tasked with delivering c

1.
The CWS provided support for flame weapons, such as this flame thrower being employed during the Battle of Tarawa, during WWII.

2.
Seal of the Chemical Corps

3.
A chemical mortar battalion in action at Utah Beach, 1944

4.
As in World War II, chemical soldiers would have employed the 4.2 inch chemical mortar in Korea, had chemical weapons been used

Anniston Army Depot
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The depot is located in Bynum, Alabama. It was placed on the NPL Superfundlist in 1990 because of soil and groundwater contamination with antimony, chromium, lead, thallium, the depot is located in Calhoun County, Alabama,10 miles west of Anniston. It covers 25 square miles of land, or 15, 200-acres and its northern side is the Pelham Range portion

1.
Mechanics at Anniston Army Depot line up an M1 Abrams turret with its hull.

Deseret Chemical Depot
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The Deseret Chemical Depot was a U. S. Army chemical weapon storage area located in Utah,60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It is related to the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, the area was used to store chemical weapons between 1942 and 2012 with weapons destruction beginning in August 1996 at the Depot which held, at that time, 45% of

1.
A pallet of M55 VX Nerve Agent-filled Rockets are prepared for transport from DCD's chemical agent storage area to the nearby Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility for destruction

Edgewood Chemical Activity
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The Edgewood Chemical Activity was a U. S. Army site located in Edgewood, Maryland that stored chemical weapons. Its construction was started by Ordnance Corps in November 1917 and completed in less than a year, the arsenal was to employ about 10,000 civilian and military personnel in fabrication of chemical weapons and filling gas shells with phos

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Hawthorne Army Depot
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Hawthorne Army Depot is a U. S. Army ammunition storage depot located near the town of Hawthorne in western Nevada in the United States. It is directly south of Walker Lake, the depot covers 147,000 acres or 226 sq. mi. and has 600,000 square feet storage space in 2,427 bunkers. HWAD is the Worlds Largest Depot and is divided into three ammunition

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Aerial View of Hawthorne Army Depot with Walker Lake to the north (above) and Mount Grant to the west (left).

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Warning of unexploded munitions from Hawthorne Army Depot in Walker Lake

Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System
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Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System was the U. S. Armys first chemical munitions disposal facility. It was located on Johnston Island, at Johnston Atoll and completed its mission, prior to the beginning of destruction operations at JACADS, the atoll held about 6. 6% of the entire U. S. stockpile of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons were

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A tray of empty projectile casings after being thermally decontaminated at JACADS

Newport Chemical Depot
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It is located near Newport, in west central Indiana, thirty-two miles north of Terre Haute. The site was used as a site for the solid explosives trinitrotoluene and RDX. It also served as the site for all of the U. S. militarys nerve agent VX. All VX nerve agent at the site was neutralized by August 8,2008 and it was the third of the Armys nine che

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Two workers in demilitarization protective ensemble (DPE) performed maintenance work in an area of the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (NECDF) where chemical agent may have been present.

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A Newport disposal site employee helped guide a stacker operator as he maneuvered an intermodal (ISO) container filled with hydrolysate.

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A convoy travels from the storage igloos to the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, where the VX was neutralized.

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The Newport Chemical Depot deactivation ceremony on June 17, 2010.

Pine Bluff Chemical Activity
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Pine Bluff Chemical Activity is a subordinate organization of the United States Army Chemical Materials Agency located at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The U. S. Army stored approximately twelve percent of its chemical weapons at the Pine Bluff Arsenal since 1942. Destruction of the last chemical weapons occurred on November 12,2010,

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Army

Pueblo Chemical Depot
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The Pueblo Chemical Depot is a chemical weapons storage site located in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The Pueblo Chemical Depot is one of the last two sites in the United States with chemical munitions and chemical material. The Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant which is under the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives progra

Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility
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The Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility or TOCDF, is a U. S. Army facility located at Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County, Utah that was used for dismantling chemical weapons. Destruction is a requirement under the Chemical Weapons Convention and is monitored by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Deseret Chemical Depo

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Workers load the final VX agent-filled M55 Rocket onto the processing line for destruction, 17 November 2003.

Umatilla Chemical Depot
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The Umatilla Chemical Depot, based in Umatilla, Oregon, was a U. S. Army installation in the United States that stored chemical weapons. The chemical weapons stored at the depot consisted of various munitions and 1 short ton containers containing GB and VX nerve agents. All munitions had been destroyed by 2011 and base closure operations were expec

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UCD Map with emergency accident zones

Project 112
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Project 112 was a biological and chemical weapon experimentation project conducted by the United States Department of Defense from 1962 to 1973. The project started under John F. Kennedys administration, and was authorized by his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the name Project 112 refers to this projects number in the 150 project review proc

Operation LAC
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Operation LAC was a U. S. Army Chemical Corps operation which dispersed microscopic zinc cadmium sulfide particles over much of the United States. The purpose was to determine the dispersion and geographic range of biological or chemical agents, there were several tests that occurred prior to the first spraying affiliated with Operation LAC that pr

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A C-119 Flying Boxcar, the type of plane used to release the chemicals

Operation Ranch Hand
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Operation Ranch Hand was a U. S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4, 5-T and 2, 4-D during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called Operation Trail Dust. Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 20

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Four-plane defoliant run, part of Operation Ranch Hand

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" Smokey Bear " parody

Operation Steel Box
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Operation Steel Box, also known as Operation Golden Python, was a 1990 joint U. S. -West German operation which moved 100,000 U. S. chemical weapons from Germany to Johnston Atoll. At U. S. Army Site 59 coor,49.265018,7.712617 near Clausen, West Germany 100,000 GB and VX filled American chemical munitions were stored in 15 concrete bunkers. These m

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The U.S. Military Sealift Command auxiliary crane ship SS Gopher State (T-ACS-4) as the ship arrives at Johnston Atoll during Operation Steel Box.

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SS Gopher State, one of two ships that carried chemical weapons to Johnston Atoll, pictured here upon arrival at the atoll during Steel Box.

Chlorine
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Chlorine is a chemical element with symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is a gas at room temperature. It is an extremely reactive element and a strong oxidising agent, among the elements, it has the

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A glass container filled with chlorine gas

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Chlorine, liquefied under a pressure of 7.4 bar at room temperature, displayed in a quartz ampule embedded in acrylic glass.

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Carl Wilhelm Scheele

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Liquid chlorine analysis

Phosgene
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Phosgene is the chemical compound with the formula COCl2. This colorless gas gained infamy as a weapon during World War I where it was responsible for about 85% of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons. It is also a valued industrial reagent and building block in synthesis of pharmaceuticals, in low concentrations, its odor resembles freshl

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US Army phosgene identification poster from World War II

QL (chemical)
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Isopropyl aminoethylmethyl phosphonite, also known as O- O-ethyl methylphosphonite, is a precursor chemical to the nerve agent VX. QL is a component in chemical weapons, mainly VX nerve agent. It, along with Methylphosphonyl difluoride, was developed during the 1980s in order to replace an aging stockpile of chemical weapons. QL is listed as a Sche

Sulfur mustard
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Sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, is a cytotoxic and vesicant chemical warfare agent with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs. Related chemical compounds with chemical structure and similar properties form a class of compounds known collectively as sulfur mustards or mustard agents. Pure sulfur mustards

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Soldier with moderate mustard agent burns sustained during World War I showing characteristic bullae on neck, armpit and hands